Knowing
by just the messenger
Summary: Valencia Mason is a rather average vampire-except for the fact that she has a secret she only shares in her journal. She doesn't want to tell anyone, to avoid feeling the shame she knows will follow after someone learning of it. When will she let it go?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any Nightmare Before Christmas characters. I only own Valencia and of course no one owns her disease.

Date: 1968

Location: Halloweentown

POT: Valencia Mason

Characters: Oogie Boogie, Jack Skellington, Sally, assorted school characters, Vampire uncles, werewolves, Dr. Finklestein, and other assorted Halloweentown characters

I hate my freakin life. Wow, I guess you've never heard that from a teenage girl before! Well, I'm definitely pretty typical as far as human standards go: black hair, big eyes, pale skin, very thin frame, tall, and fairly intelligent. I'm not too nice though. I can't really think of any friends I have. I know, how sad am I! But I suppose you could count Sally as a friend. We don't hang out, but she doesn't fawn over me or anything. My uncles are decidedly NOT my friends. Oh yeah, and then there's my disease.

Now, don't think I'm a typical eating disorder patient, cause I'm not. Sure, I restricted, lost 35 pounds, went into the hospital. But I now have the opposite problem. No one seems to have any sympathy for the binger; it's only the anorexic they care about. Well, forget them. I don't need them. I don't need anybody. I'm fine just the way I am. Let my uncles lock up the blood in the house so I don't drink everything. Let them say they're not ashamed of me when I know they are. Let them tell me I'm beautiful when I'm decidedly ugly. I don't care about them. They mean nothing to me.

No one really understands me. I guess I hope that by writing in this journal, someone out there will.

Oh well.

Here goes nothing!

-Valencia Mason, vampire, teenager, compulsive over drinker

Please tell me what you think. I hope you all like it!


	2. BBV

Thank you for the review, Subuko no Jess! I am taking your advice, and this painfully short chapter is in Oogie's point of view. Enjoy! And I changed the title to Knowing. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Nightmare Before Christmas. I do own Valencia, Elmer, Oogie's mother and father, and Willowsville High.

I waited by the open window while the sun slowly rose over the horizon. I've always had a special soft spot for sunrises. The way the crimson slowly overtakes the black and the gentle golden color of the shining orb raises itself into the sky…..

But enough about my interest in sunrises. This entry in what I am decidedly NOT calling my DIARY is about the first day of school that wasn't boring in about 2 years. It all started when I got up around 5 am and watched the gorgeous sunrise outside my wide window. I don't usually get up this early, since school doesn't start until 7 am, but I couldn't resist watching that brilliant star rise slowly into the heavens.

I have the perfect view of the nearby grave yard, right at the edge of Octobra woods. My house is right in the middle of Willowsville, which is our town. The Town Hall in to my left, and the witches' apothecary lies to my right. The pumpkin sun rises right over Coral Hill, right in the middle of this hallowed ground. I often travel to the gravesite to visit the residing spirits and the like.

To elaborate, you probably guessed that I'm dead. I myself am actually the boogieman. Well, almost, anyway. Currently the reigning boogieman is my father, but I'm 16so it's only a matter of time and finishing of my education. But back to the topic, yes, I am undead, meaning I am animate but have no heartbeat (or physical heart, not to say I don't feel emotion). I've learned about the mortals in school, and this is how I know about heartbeats and spleens and the like. I'm not particularly interested in human or undead biology, but one does remember certain facts about either if one studies them for as long as I have. We are not immortals, like spirits, but we do not die, for we are already dead. Just run on some kind of electrical frequency, I believe. Never do creatures die here.

But to continue: my morning began when I watched the sunrise. The sky was a dark black, like a bat's wing, and slowly, light began to shine across the horizon. When the sky had turned a lovely pink and the sun was halfway in the sky, I myself rose out of my frumpy bed to face another supposedly educational day at Willowsville High. (Creative name, huh? It's better than the other options, which, if possible, were both grotesque and ludicrous.) I dressed in a simple black shirt with an orange hem, and of course my trademark pants. i really hate to wear black, but it's part of the academy's dress code. It contrasts to starkly with my pale skin. My dark eyes blend in alright, and so do my black lips, but definitely not my white visage. And my hair is another matter entirely. Tousled black with red and purple highlights! Of all colors! After dressing in the academy's uniform, I decided to do something about my hair. It was the first day of school, after all, and I didn't want to look ridiculous like I did last year. Now that I had passed into 10th grade, I wanted to look presentable and not like a ragtag member of some rock band in this town. so I brought out the gel and the comb, and made it lie flat for once. I couldn't do anything about the color, since I owned no henna, though I could have easily bought some at the witch's apothecary. My mom's always saying I need to dye it sometime, to get rid of the odd colors, but Dad says it's just the thing to make me appear scarier than I actually am. However, being scarier isn't exactly high on my list of priorities. Surviving is more a goal of mine right now. But I'm not really sure he's able to understand that, since he's so incredibly ornery about these sorts of things.

So, having been dressed appropriately and not like a complete idiot, I headed out of my small bedroom with the sun pouring in the open window. I heard my mother silently crying in the kitchen. I went into the living room, and sure enough, there sat Mom mutely sobbing into her apron, her hands over her face and her hair strewn about her person. She and Dad must have been having an argument before I came downstairs.

"Mom?" I asked. She looked up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm, um, fine, sweetheart," she answered uncertainly, wiping her face. I bit my lip and turned away from her, not wishing to see her in such a weakened state.

"Where's Dad?" I asked in a numb voice. Mom sniffed. "He's, um, out, pumpkin, off to work."

I scoffed. _Figures_, I thought. _Just like him to leave after making mom cry_. I sighed and sat down at the table. I didn't feel much like eating, so I just picked at the food.

"You should eat more." Her voice still sounded like she had a cold. "You're too skinny."

I laughed. "not compared to the other boys in town," I contradicted, thinking of the skeletons like Jack, the prince of the town, or Elmer, a terribly bony zombie friend of his at school.

Mom smiled sweetly, wiped her eyes and ruffled my hair. "Hey!" I said loudly. "I spent twenty minutes on that!"

"Sorry," she sweetly replied, kissing my cheek instead. I rolled my eyes but didn't cringe away like I normally would. Just as I was about to ask her what she planned to do while I was gone, the grandfather clock in the corner screamed, and glancing over we discovered that it was already seven o'clock. This meant I had exactly 3 minutes to get to Willowsville High before the bell rang.

"Bye Mom," I said, swiftly leaving the table and grabbing my threadbare knapsack. mom looked surprised, like she had forgotten I had to leave. "Um, bye, darling," she said confusedly. I closed the door behind me.

Having run to school in thirty seconds, I had over two minutes to spare. All the other scholars were crowded around the dilapidated benches surrounding our proud educational facility, Willowsville High. Rarely have I seen a more hated destination in my life. I myself rather enjoy school (save for the constistant and rather creative bullying) but not many teens my age do. really, the only reason they go is to get their degrees so they can be official frighteners like their parents (Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.). So we were all sitting aound, waiting for school to start, when the day suddenly became ten times more exciting than it usually is!

I myself had pulled out a novel (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens-yes, we read classic literature from the mortal realm in this town) when a hearse pulled up alongside the willow tree guarding the school grounds. We recognized it as belonging to four of the resident vampires in our town-Serial, Marseille, Gulliver, and Sistiner. And just as if on cue, all four tall and handsome immortals stepped out of the car, wearing rippling black robes of silk as usual.

_What could they be doing here?_ I wondered. The vampires, especially this quartet, never approached such a destination as Willowsville High. Presumably it wasn't refined enough for their aristocratic lineage, and of course none of them had children to send here. One does here of a vampire infant now and then, bitten as an infant and raised by these creatures of the night. The child, if allowed to keep a certain degree of blood in their system (their own, obviously) is able to grow and develop until they reach puberty, which for them is generally 27. Then they live their lives out, hundreds of years, until they commit suicide by stepping out in the sun, driving an aspen stake through their chest, or burning themselves. Then There are also the rare half-breeds who are born to one human and one immortal, usually a male vampire and a female mortal, who age until their blood is completely drained from their body. Lastly, there is the rarest and most powerful breed of vampire, which is a Blue Blooded Vein. These particular immortals are full vampire, but they age nonetheless, can survive a stake through the heart, and can cross over bridges. These breeds are children of a witch and a vampire.

The other teens began to mutter to each other, each probably wondering what the heck they were doing here? The four imposing males gazed down their pointed noses at us, sniffed disdainfully, and opened the passenger door. Out stepped a female vampire of around sixteen or fifteen, with long black hair and black clothing. She was of medium height, a very slight build, and her hair acted as a curtain to shield her face. Only when she shook back the mane did we all see her visage.

She had an sharp face with thin cheeks and a small mouth. Her lips were a black, rather dead looking color, and she looked like she didn't smile often. Her nose was straight and angular, not too big or too pointed like her drivers'. Her skin was typically pale, drained of all color, save for a bluish tinge in her cheeks. Her eyes surveyed all of us critically, showing a great deal of contempt for her surroundings. In short, the girl looked like a mini version of the seres around her.

"Now," drawled Gulliver to her in his Romanian accent. "You are to come straight home when lessons terminate. Do you understand?"

She sharply nodded. "Good," replied Marseille. "See that you do." they turned to go.

"Be careful," admonished Gulliver. She nodded, looking afraid. "Vampires should always be on their guard," he continued. He turned to the car, and then back at her. "Especial BBVs."

We all gasped.

Please R&R!


End file.
